DECO HOME: Exclusive update on Kurt Pio’s home

In our latest Fashion Issue91, we visit the cheeky-elegant Victorian home of milliner and artist Kurt Pio and his housemate Gabrielle Guy. It is both a home and a place to exhibit their work and explore different themes and ideas within the interior. A truly dynamic space, it has changed since the house was shot for our Fashion Issue91, so we asked Kurt to send us a few more images so we could see how it had changed.

Quite literally, as the Fashion Issue went to print, he let us know that he had just redone the kitchen – his thinking was to renovate it into a classic and traditional kitchen that would work well with the Victorian-style architecture with marble, mirror and brass elements. Kurt put up shelves in the kitchen to display various items and art, which allows for much rearranging without having to knock in nails.

The newly renovated kitchen

Kurt was inspired by our Decorating Issue89 cover: the shelves are a quick, easy and cost effective solution for displaying art and other items.

Read all about Kurt’s art and millinery in The Fashion Issue91 – he is a man of many talents and one of them includes creating herbaria: a collection of preserved plant specimens.

‘Handpicking from friends’ gardens and buying plant specimens, I then created antiqued sheets of paper, stained and aged labels and stickers and typed up information blocks on an old typewriter. The idea was to create a piece of history, as if an early discoverer had collected these same specimens many years before and documented them in this way.’

Images: Kurt's preserved plant specimens

Kurt’s Representation I, II, III and Restoration I is a collection of work that uses the chair which ‘embodies and reflects changes in design fashion and ethos,’ referencing Cape Town’s colonial past. More on this collection and purchasing Kurt’s work, contact kurt@kurtpio.com

Gabrielle’s work is very much on display in the house – here is her Bird series which she photographed between 2010 and 2011, and decided to produce them for Haas, as it suited their animal kingdom/taxidermy aesthetic. There are 9 images in the series, and come in a small 8 x 10″ size, and a larger 360 x 480mm size. All are pigment ink on matte paper.

Gabrielle Guy's bird series

In the Fashion Issue91, we show you more of both Kurt and Gabrielle’s art and give you an extensive 10 page tour of the house.

‘The house is filled with a wonderful collection of gently worn furniture and art that has more than a passing nod to colonial Cape, English, Dutch and French influences.’